Former United States House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her husband Paul Pelosi Photo: Tasos Katopodis / Getty Images via AFP
By Daniel Trotta for Reuters
A federal jury on Thursday convicted a right-wing conspiracy theorist of a hammer attack on the husband of former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, NBC News reported.
David Wayne DePape, 43, broke into the Pelosis' San Francisco home and struck Paul Pelosi over the head with a hammer in the early morning hours of 28 October 2022 hile Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, was still speaker and away in Washington.
The San Francisco jury, which deliberated since midday Wednesday, found him guilty of attempted kidnapping and assault of an immediate family member of a federal official, NBC News reported.
The crimes carry potential prison sentences of 20 years and 30 years, respectively, under federal sentencing guidelines.
DePape also faces further charges including attempted murder in California state court that carry a potential sentence of 13 years to life in prison.
Defense attorney Jodi Linker argued during the trial that DePape did not commit a federal crime because he was not driven by Pelosi's official duties as speaker. Instead, she argued, DePape's firm belief in wide-ranging but misguided conspiracy theories motivated him to bring down the wealthy and powerful ruling class.
Linker let many of the facts of the case go uncontested as the hammer strike was recorded by police body cameras and DePape admitted to his actions while testifying in his own defence.
Evidence showed DePape was driven by right-wing conspiracy theories, embracing the fictions spread by QAnon, questioning the Holocaust, and feeding off political accusations against Hunter Biden, the president's son, and George Soros, the billionaire Holocaust survivor.
DePape told the jury he wanted to kidnap Nancy Pelosi, interrogate her, and break her kneecaps if he found her to be lying. But after breaking into the home he instead found her husband, then age 82, asleep in his bed. DePape said the attack was a reaction to his original plan going awry.
"He was never my target and I'm sorry that he got hurt," DePape said.
Paul Pelosi was knocked unconscious and hospitalised for several days, undergoing surgery for skull fractures.
Testifying for the prosecution, Pelosi said he has tried not to relive the episode, including by avoiding the video clip of him being attacked, but that he did remember waking up on his floor in a "pool of blood."
- This story was first published by Reuters.
